


Kingdom of heavens

by 1000lux



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Conversions, Gen, Happy Ending, Iceland, M/M, Religion, a tiny bit of athelnar, actually the whole story is rather happy, and takes Heahmund with them, cameos by almost every main character, everyone gets some solace and peace, floki and heahmund fight over souls, ivar goes with floki, mostly religious pondering with some heavar strewn in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 12:24:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000lux/pseuds/1000lux
Summary: When Floki goes to the land of the gods, Ivar decides to go with him. He also takes Heahmund with him.





	Kingdom of heavens

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own rights to either the show nor it's characters.
> 
> I just needed to write something hopeful and happy, because canon is seriously dragging me down. 
> 
> I don't care for Floki and I didn't really watch his storyline in Iceland, but I thought I could make something out of the concept.

On the mouth of the river  
And the wrath of the giver  
With the hands of a sinner

(Imagine Dragons - Mouth of the river)

***

"Ivar, what are you going to do?" Heahmund asked.

"I'm going with Floki to the land of the gods. I will be king there. And live among the gods."

*

"Why did you take the priest?" Floki asked, when they were on the ship. "It will anger the gods."

"Do you think?" Ivar chuckled. "Are you sure it's not just you who's angered by it?"

*

Floki had had many dreams and hopes for the land they were going to. Maybe he should have known that the priest accompanying them had been a bad sign already.

Once they'd arrived there, things turned for the worse. The life was harsh. Hunger. Disease. Famine. The ground hardly bore fruit. The weather was unpredictable. 

*

"Are you afraid, priest?" Ivar asked. "Are you afraid to die?"

"No, I'm not. God is in everything. He's here with me too. Are you afraid?"

Ivar laughed.

"You do not believe in this." Heahmund said. "You were just too afraid to lose Floki."

"Yes. Can you blame me? Your entire life is based on fear."

*

And against all expectations soon two camps were forming. Both centered around two half-hazard structures, errected by two desperate men. One bearing the image of Odin the other... a cross.

*

During rain and storm Heahmund had carried wooden poles and boards, securing them against the weather. In the beginning he had been pushed and shoved, jeered at. But truly no one had wanted to test the sword he was once more carrying at his side.

*

"Why do you let him do this, Ivar?" Floki asked, as he regarded Heahmund holding a sermon with those of their settlement who'd turned from the gods. 

"Let him. If he wants." Ivar shrugged. "It's a free country." He guffawed. "Let's see whose gods are really here."

*

And so it had come to this point, where on one side of their camp Floki was making a sacrifice, while on the other Heahmund was baptising people in one of the hot springs.

*

"Don't you see it?" Aud said. "Floki, the Christian god is the only one who can protect us. He gives us hope. We need it more than anything."

*

And Floki found himself immersed in a battle he'd never seen coming. A battle for... How would the priest say, souls.

*

Unperturbed by all of it sat Ivar and his seer queen, impartial and aloof, on the wooden thrones Ivar had had them errected, watching with glee as the camp was further divided.

*

"It looks to me, Floki." Ivar said amused. "You've found your match."

"It's angering the gods."

Ivar looked at the clouded sky, a storm was coming, he could almost hear the thunder already. "I don't think the gods mind. I think they enjoy a bit of sport."

*

"We'll just divide the camp here." Ivar said with an amused chuckle, drawing a line into the dirt with a sharp stone. "Then we can all live... peacefully." He gave them all a look that was mocking in it's authority. "Respect each other's borders." Ivar told them gleefully, crawling right through the line, completely blurring it.

*

"Have you come to mass, Ivar?"

"No. I've come to visit you. Are you not grateful for what I've given you?" Ivar asked, smiling. "What I've given you both? My two favorite people in the world. You never fit in. And now I've given you the chance to build a church of the god you see. Where a priest can be a warrior. Will have to be. No more the judging voices of those around you. Every decision you make will be singularly between you and," He pointed upwards. "your god."

"Where do you fit in, Ivar?"

"I do not wish to kill my brothers. So I had to remove myself from their world. I wasn't meant for it anyway. I'm a transcendent being, priest. I live between the realms. Freydis agrees. And I'm curious too, I think, which god will win. In a battle man against man."

*

Heahmund should have guessed that Ivar would not mind the chaos and duality of his new kingdom. As well as he should have guessed that the true reason for Ivar's journey had been something inherently sentimental. For deep down, Ivar was more hopeful and innocent than all of them.

Heahmund himself was taken off guard, though, by this strange turn of events. Here he was, in a country that was neither his home nor that land of the Northmen, building a church. He'd been more peaceful here, more at peace, than ever before. There were arguments and fights, true. But Heahmund had not killed a single person, since they'd come here. The line was drawn between him and Floki. Between them the fight went on. A fight that was mostly fought with looks, in both their minds.

There was always strife in Ivar's new kingdom. For survival. For souls. They were fighting the elements. They were fighting their own fear. Yet there was no war. Too harsh was the land and they so very few compared to the vastness of their hostile surroundings. So no one dared to kill just one of them, when what united them was so much more than what divided them. They all believed in different things. But at the end of the day they were working the same fields, trying to wring life from the same acres of stone and dust. When he drew his sword now, then only to fight of the wildlife attacking their homes.

Heahmund still wore his sword, but more than ever before in his life, he was preaching. His weapon now was the word of the Lord. And he never had truly believed that he'd be able to wield it as he'd wielded his sword for years.

*

"What can I do for you today, priest?" Ivar smiled at him with his usual mischief.

Heahmund grabbed Ivar and kissed him, feeling the other freeze and then just melt into his touch.

"The rules are only between me and my maker, Ivar." Heahmund said, still holding Ivar's face in his hands. "You said it yourself."

"So your god approves?"

Heahmund cocked his head. "At least I do not think he objects."

*

And while outside the storm was tearing on both the places of worship errected here, without discriminating, inside Ivar's house, a man who'd been slave to his body and to expectation alike, let go of all that. And decided for himself that there was no sin in it as he gave up his body to the man who'd both imprisoned and freed him. There was no shame in it, for there was love and respect between them.

*

And when the first trees started bearing fruit, Heahmund felt like they'd been let back into the Garden Eden. There were no lambs among them, but the lions lay peacefully beside each other.

*

And a few years later the people celebrating Christmas and the people celebrating yuletide would come to sit together under the yule tree, drink spiced wine and everyone would chime into each other's songs.

And Floki thought, he'd found the land of the gods indeed. There'd just been more than he'd expected. He and the priest would never truly accept the other or his belief, but it was not like they were making decisions for the others any longer.

Whatever else could be said, their community was working. They would live. So maybe they had all won, even though neither Heahmund nor Floki could truly claim the victory.

*

And as the tug of war between those two men continued, somewhere across the Mediterranean Sea, Bjorn and Halfdan were sitting cross-legged in a tea house, eating baklava, thinking that the strange singing coming up from the towers throughout the city, had almost become familiar.   
At the same time, back in Kattegat, Hvitserk who'd been lost all his life, learned about a man called Buddha, and with it that the things that truly mattered were already inside yourself.  
Meanwhile, in Wessex, a young king wondered whether he believed in anything at all any longer.

King Harald squinted up at the sun, a grin across his face. "Exciting times we live in. Exciting times."

*

And somewhere, somewhere in a place that might have been heaven or valhalla or maybe nirvana, a curious and patient man and his doubting friend had found each other again, pondering as always over the peculiarities of life and all that was still to learn.

As Ragnar leaned over to kiss Athelstan, beside them King Ecbert said, "Now, this is rather awkward."

"You are telling me." Aslaug replied, long-suffering and unimpressed.

Ecbert turned to her with a charming smile. "I don't think we've been introduced."


End file.
